#213: Gold and Lead and Mercury Confound the Autoptician
Added 2024-04-26 16:41:42 +0000 UTCPART 1: Operation Talk-the-Talk goes off the rails.
PART 2: Calculus will downsample your brain to make a snuff film.
(This episode is dedicated to Matthew, Brit, and their baby boy, & to the heart of my heart, kµ.)
Comments
"The autopsy cycle in a mannequin republic" is a line harder than a coffin nail Also, in an attempt to provide some small comfort that things will not be this way forever, as a person approaching their 7th year of sobriety I find that I am still in the process of getting to get to know my post-addiction self. You are not fixed (or dilated) to one position now, but still forever in the process of becoming. May god bless you and keep you May it's face shine upon you And bring you peace
John H
2024-09-20 16:53:04 +0000 UTCHey, Michael. As an ex-junkie (of about a decade, and gosh...maybe 15 years off the stuff?) I just wanted to congratulate you. It's a big fucking deal. I hope you stay the path, brother, and for what it's worth...this podcast has been a godsend for me and my Pynchon fanaticist brain.
Scott
2024-07-25 17:35:34 +0000 UTCFeel like the Gesaffelstein music video really captures the folly of thinking things being reduced into smaller and smaller pieces CONSTITUTES the thing as a whole https://youtu.be/oRSijEW_cDM?si=vwp66MT8AaJ2XHJd
Scott Bobbitt
2024-05-31 22:06:57 +0000 UTCHey MSJ, I saw you on Twitter getting some talk going about Falstaff - I'm commenting here because I don't know how Twitter works anymore, seems permantly fucked etc - and I'm just here to pile on another recommendation to see the Welles film, CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT. It's streaming on the Criterion Channel but if you don't have that, most of the big services have it too. Incredible film. Also, come to Bluesky! It's still pretty small-time but that's not a bad thing at all. And who knows what it'll be as it scales up but for the moment it's kind of "what if you took Twitter but everybody bullied/blocked all the Nazis and TERFs and Crypto bros into deleting their account". There's no invite code, it's just open. Up to you obvs but it'd be cool to see you there.
Rohmer Simpson
2024-05-07 15:38:53 +0000 UTCThomann has a Lewitt LCT 840 for only $666 right now, just FYI. Sweetwater has them priced at $1200 (Thomann was the only place I could buy the Hesu speakers from as a ‘Murikan)
NYCM&AHole
2024-05-02 18:39:52 +0000 UTCI don't think I could ever deserve this, but thank you for being so kind anyway
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-29 22:38:54 +0000 UTCNot to embarrass you or anything, but you deserve it. It takes a lot of humanity to understand it in that way
Margarita Calderon
2024-04-29 22:34:40 +0000 UTCJust listened to the prologue and want to say before I keep listening. I really appreciate you and that you spoke about this and acknowledged Max Azzarello. I'm so happy you have that feeling in your life and I'm not a word smith like you and I know it's para social but I'm really happy for ya pal and yeah... Enough melodramatics now.
Kate Baldwin
2024-04-29 15:12:28 +0000 UTCI don't know if you've ever read or studied the old Chan (Zen) teachers but this episode really demonstrated that you deeply Get What The Fuck They Were On About.
David
2024-04-29 14:03:16 +0000 UTCI think part of it is you explaining how you do and have felt and that I relate to it way too much and it made me upset that someone else is having to feel that way, that so many probably are, and I wish I could take that away for everyone else. But even amongst all of this, all of that, beautiful things can still come from what feels like the darkest place, that love still exists. And it's why we keep going.
SeattleSomethin
2024-04-29 13:20:09 +0000 UTCNot gunna lie for some reason the beginning of this actually had me tearing up. Been in a dark place, sometimes we really do need to remember why we keep going. Thank you my friend. On another note, I love that song and I'm gunna reach out to them and see if I can cover/remix it. Amazing song.
SeattleSomethin
2024-04-29 13:03:42 +0000 UTCRan across this and I’ll add it to my list of things to watch when I am sick or a day off and I have time to truly appreciate it. https://youtu.be/TB6SvQINfzY?si=W48tHyJJW4ZfMP1c Always wished I was a neat solderer like that.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-29 02:09:18 +0000 UTCYeah I’ve seen people testing Marshall plexis in repair videos that are allegedly 100 watts and they turn out to be like 140 watts. Never was a huge Marshall amp fan though (except for a certain guitarist’s variac’d Marshall) because they’ve been absurdly expensive until this year.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-28 23:52:57 +0000 UTCYeah, the original Alnico Blues were exactly 15 watts, and they didn't plan on anybody pushing their amps into overdrive – who would want *distortion*? – so the first Marshall JTM45 combos had 30 watts' worth of speaker (2 Blues) and they caught fire on a regular basis. Same reason Hendrix switched from G12M25 Greenbacks to G12H30s in his Marshall cabs – a 100-watt Marshall utterly cranked can peak above 150 watts, and there's live film of him playing while a jet of fire that used to be a Greenback shoots out the front of his Marshall cab, lol
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-28 23:00:34 +0000 UTCAlso lol I didn’t know about the exploding speakers
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-28 21:28:54 +0000 UTCLol I mean I actually have Jeff Loomis devil’s triad going 4 cable method (stupid mesa for putting in a parallel loop) but I do have a TS for shits and giggles. But that tone needs the mesa oversize cabinet resonance and that affects tone etc. But I have a pair of vintage 30s in a carvin legacy 212, and they sound different because they’re front loaded. I’ll look into the eminences. Though I want to try the Hiwatt LCFR 150 ( https://lichtlaermaudio.com/shop/lcrf150 ) and some of the wearhouse guitar speakers.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-28 21:24:29 +0000 UTCV30s can do way more than that, but if you actually do have a Dual Rectifier, try Eminence CV-75s, and try a Barber Gain Changer or Analog Man Beano Boost instead of the TS
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-28 20:51:34 +0000 UTCI don't know that particular source, but o we will get there – if you've read that, you've probably read THE DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT, but just in case ... have a look
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-28 20:41:21 +0000 UTCBut that YT link is misleading – people *think* the difference is "UK V30" vs. "Chinese V30," and it very briefly was, but it isn't now. Capsule history: • 1987: Marshall wants to celebrate its 25th anniversary by making a reissue JTM45 2x12 "Bluesbreaker" combo, but without the original Celestion Alnico Blues that tended to explode, so they ask Celestion for a new speaker • 1987 is also Celestion's 30th anniversary, so they design a speaker that's supposed to have the power and volume of a ceramic with some of the tone of an alnico – hence "Vintage 30," because of the alnico-tone affinities and the 30 years, NOT because (as is often wrongly presumed) they're 30 watts (they're 60 apiece) • then–mid ’90s: Vintage 30 becomes hugely popular for all kinds of contexts, especially as THE hard rock + metal speaker, though they actually rule at all kinds of things (you put them sumbitches in something that sounds like a Vox or a tweed Bassman, you are on your WAY), and Mesa/Boogie uses V30s in tons of its amps • late ’90s or early 2000s, nobody knows: Celestion changes the design (allegedly the speaker cone) of the V30 and outsources its production to China, both to cut costs • same time: Mesa/Boogie goes to Celestion and says "These new V30s suck, so you can lose us as a client, or you can build us some of the old good ones," and Celestion does smaller production runs of original V30s in Ipswich, UK, *strictly* for Mesa/Boogie • and here's the key part: sometime in the last 25 years, Celestion has moved Vintage 30 production back to the UK, *but they're still making the shitty second version of the speaker*. Doesn't matter where they're from now; if you buy them off the shelf from Celestion or in any amp that's NOT a Mesa/Boogie, you're getting the v2 Vintage 30. (Those can be OK, they're hardly unusable, but they're nowhere near the originals.) • SO, if you want a real Vintage 30, there are only two ways to do it: either buy a late-’80s/early-’90s speaker (and of course those are counterfeited to death now), OR buy a new Vintage 30 straight from Mesa/Boogie. Every single other new V30 is the v2, no matter where it was made; if it's new and not from Mesa, then it's a "Chinese V30," even if it was built in England. ... And if that seems excessive, I know a guy who runs a company, and a successful one!!, dedicated to nothing but period-accurate recreations of Celestions as they changed across the ’60s and ’70s, mostly Greenbacks and the gorgeous mega-underrated "Silver Bell" Alnico (#1 best speaker in a Vox, hands down, if you're sticking with traditional alnicos).
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-28 20:38:21 +0000 UTCYeah but my problem is then I sound like every other asshole with a dual rectifier, mesa vintage 30s and a tube screamer boosting the signal to tighten the low end.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-28 20:32:45 +0000 UTCThe best Vintage 30s are some of the best speakers ever, but there are dozens of varieties without many distinguishing marks, and some of them absolutely suck upon the balls of men. If you want V30s, you *have* to get them from the Mesa/Boogie online store – they're the only ones who sell & use the originals
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-28 20:23:05 +0000 UTChttps://www.amazon.com/Palestine-Laboratory-Exports-Technology-Occupation/dp/183976208X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=378OJW2T2Y0ZX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.rQXcJhTfKHoNROL55o2JLRqpOCfDhkFvqNtkHU--4vj_iuFsmRkC7iiZpsTu6Y2UkFF_5qr_qTo6kI2VG1eBP07KsphHpf7gxZOXTJ_5N-qpi0ijxC605PFGfkESeePpXVkknwyFIMbXXAf3hcPNx8Vf73KuTrnTFAVZRMcBgVS_NZEi8-DmmH2FzSEfbU7OetHLrWJp8B1fplwUvMtfZQ.uufMF8T6G5PEmTnF4RI5GhchQJm1lTioohN-QRNat6g&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+palestine+laboratory&qid=1714334964&sprefix=the+palestine%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-1
Tyler Miller
2024-04-28 20:10:19 +0000 UTCIt's a hard thing for me to talk about, first of all because I'm private and paranoid, and also because it's the kind of thing you can "know" but not be able to say with any detail or conviction, because you don't really feel it ... and the last year or so, against all odds, to my surprise more than anyone else's ("surprise" doesn't even cover it; "shock," really), I've had the chance to feel it in a way I didn't even know existed
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-28 20:01:33 +0000 UTCI remember listening to an episode, I think it was one which you spoke of immanence and transcendence, where you said that love between two people can be a continual process where you receive the love given to you and transmute it through your own heart and mind and then you give it back and forth transmuting it each time, and it creates a new and larger energy every time you give and receive. You only mentioned it briefly but it blew me away and I’ve thought of that every day since. I was hoping you would someday talk more of this because it is so profound. Thank you so much for sharing this.
Margarita Calderon
2024-04-28 02:28:54 +0000 UTCFrom an article on Max: “All he wanted was better for people and it didn’t matter if he knew you or not. He wanted better for everyone.” MSJ - you're a light on the hill, no matter how dark it gets, and so was Max.
Tim
2024-04-28 00:36:27 +0000 UTCthis was amazing. thank you so much for your bravery in what you revealed about yourself and how you felt about things recently. it was one of the good moments for me of which there have been too few lately. I also loved the connections to gravity's rainbow which I am reading slowly. I read everything slowly these days. hard to focus!
diane bluegreen
2024-04-27 22:30:39 +0000 UTC"they will chop you down just to count your rings"
qjkx
2024-04-27 15:21:59 +0000 UTC"Hot diggity dog!", my final retort after a second listen. The willingness to engage in a dialectic process with your creative output to the actions of a consuming input is something I've thought about since I started playing live music at 16. Your choice to engage with this directly and publicly is inspiring. Expressing the state of 4R through the fetishization of quantified sample points forces me to reread some of my favorite books on Digital Signal Processing. I believe DSP is a name of the alchemical process you're describing, in terms of our internalization of external stimuli. The favorid of the 4R being with a prepackaged response. It could be useful to think about this in terms of synchronous or asynchronous processes. Our web browsers function in a request/reply dialog over protocols defined to transmit a message type (hypertext) defined in the 30s by.. who's that... Vannevar Bush? Incredible Free Book https://dspguide.com/ Not Free Book Real Sound Synthesis for Interactive Applications 1st Edition by Perry R Cook I have digital and physical copies of this with no regrets. I think he has some free courses on Udemy that are pretty good too. I've begun writing show notes for my own process, and 5 songs entered my mind as I reprocessed your focused stream. - Ministry - Work For Love - Air - Surfing on a Rocket - DJ Screw - My Mind Went Blank - Brian Eno - Kurts Rejoiner - Roky Erickson - The Interpreter One love
glenn mohre
2024-04-27 15:06:24 +0000 UTCMy husband and I listen to “dream baby” often. It means a lot to us. Thank you for this show Michael.
M
2024-04-27 11:50:38 +0000 UTCMichael. Your show isn't a reason to kill myself, I feel like this should be said. As a matter of fact you kept me going in a way that almost nobody else on the internet has (You're my favorite of my top 3, you're friends with the other 2) because you express some of the feelings I feel better than anyone else I ever met. I was drunk as shit when I started listening to you, in fact I made a dumbass comment while I was still wasted, I think I deleted it. But I got clean myself alongside you, slightly different timeline. I actually started writing about how you were transmuting love into what you put in the show right before you said it. I feel it with every rasp of that beautiful voice of yours. I feel the love man, and as much as I can say this in a not weird way, I fucking love you and the way you roll. I hope it doesn't make you laugh too hard, but you make me feel so much more sane. Do exactly what you need to do, I'll wait and listen. The bit of my soul that I need to push down just to function gets let out of its box when I hear you. I'm babbling now, but I want to send a little bit of love back to you. Also, I want to say I ALSO am finally getting a degree because of your inspiration! I did a really bad analysis of 2666 because you got me to read it. Your words on Bolaño inspired my work though, my peers told me I was being too broad, but I just found out I passed the class. So you helped me on my road to be a teacher too! So thank you so much!
Andrew Rassling
2024-04-27 07:40:50 +0000 UTCThank you!! I completely forgot to take photos before i framed and set up my gallery space, but once we deinstall, I'll take better (no glass in the way) pics and put them on twitter :)
Noah Barlow
2024-04-27 05:29:55 +0000 UTCCongrats man. May we see your artworks?
Tim
2024-04-27 04:49:10 +0000 UTCI wanted to let you know that I'm basically graduating college because of your show--I started listening several years ago and picked up The Crying of Lot 49 bc of it, and I loved it so much I decided to restart my capstone project, which was going nowhere, and to make a series of paintings based on the book. CoL49 has become a kind of compass in my life bc you told me about it and your analysis intrigued me. Now I've finally finished undergrad this month after 9 turbulent years. So thanks!
Noah Barlow
2024-04-27 03:37:57 +0000 UTCDon't make me cry Michael!! I feel this so much about my boyfriend and my family.
Noah Barlow
2024-04-27 03:30:28 +0000 UTCAn Immense episode. Tears and brain-fruit. What’s the outro song.
Michael McGroarty
2024-04-27 02:46:24 +0000 UTCAlso this is the compressor https://youtu.be/bU6w1zbQC8g?si=kRa1gTAmvgpoF0p3
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-27 01:34:27 +0000 UTCSee the obsession that some people have with vintage 30s https://youtu.be/JGF-q9WoW-4?si=urKgnOzWZiCbh6EZ
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-27 01:26:22 +0000 UTCOh yeah I’ve watched enough YouTube to know the whole SM57 rule but like Ola Englund uses a variety of mics and so does Glenn Fricker and so on. I have just enough to be fine (though i still have an engl or Bogner or Kerry King JCM800 (it has KT77s) on my list), but I think I’m making up for being a broke teenager and I’ve watched too much gear tube (but if I wind up like Kyle Bull, I’m ordering you to put me out of my misery - https://youtu.be/9lh5zhkpP1U?si=lkAFcpdYGAig_bv1 ). My current mystery is at what point do I need rack gear like mic preamps and/or compressors, etc. like I know some mics need phantom power but some need preamps to get to line level if I was listening correctly. I went down a rabbit hole on speakers and cabinets - I bought two old carvin legacy 2x12s. One had old Uk Greenbacks from the 90s, the other has early 2000 era vintage 30s. I already have greenbacks in another cab and they’re differently wired (16ohm not 8ohm) so I swapped them out for Hesu demons. Kicking myself for damaging one of the greenback speaker cones on removal though. I did want some vintage 30s though just to have the option of the basic bitch equivalent of metal tones.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-27 01:18:30 +0000 UTCThat was a great prologue, put into perspective that huge jump my consciousness made after October. I had serious problems identifying with people who saw anything in Israel, your show educates that for me. Finally got tired of sucking up to nonsense liberal rhetoric for the sake of, “changing someone’s mind.”
why why
2024-04-27 01:16:50 +0000 UTCHonestly I don't know that much about high-end studio gear. That shit is insanely expensive. If you're trying to mic up guitar sounds, the process I always recommend is • get a Shure SM57, a Sennheiser e609, or both • put the SM57 about halfway between the center and the edge of the speaker, anywhere from a few inches to a foot off the front of the speaker, and then put the e609 on the other half of the speaker, closer to the dustcap (center) • (so you've got the SM57 moved left of the center of the speaker, the dustcap, and then you've got the e609 hanging on the right side of the speaker, but closer to the center) • record those first 2 separately, figure out if you prefer one, or try using them as a mixer between different frequencies of the amp/speaker • and then, it depends on volume, but walk around a bit while playing guitar/bass/etc., anywhere from 5-10 feet from the amp/speaker, and when you hear a spot that sounds particularly good (and has the "air" and transparency to work well with the focus and density of the 57/e609), • and put an SM58, *not* another 57 (tho that could be fine), exactly where your ears are relative to the amp/speaker, anywhere from a couple feet off the ground to the height of your ears So basically a 57 on the speaker cone, not pointing at the center, an e609 closer to the center, and then a 58 works very well as a distance mic to fill in some of what the 57 doesn't get. You might end up only needing/wanting one of the two close mics, which is fine. Or, alternatively, if you have like $1500, go to Sweetwater and buy the package of an SM57 ($99) and a Royer R-121 (>$1,000), plus the clip that aligns them correctly on a mic stand, and just do that forever. I've never had expensive recording gear in my life, I always liked seeing what I could do with minimal resources, but Royer makes a significantly cheaper version of the classic 121 ribbon that's called the R-10. I might eventually enstupid myself into buying an R-10, cos it's the perfect thing with a 57 to make a guitar tone fat as hell, and it's also incredible as an overhead/room mic, killer at smoothing out mean transients on cymbals, drums, piano, etc.
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-27 01:02:19 +0000 UTCThanks for this one. Truly.
Ryan Diederich
2024-04-27 00:28:43 +0000 UTC“At least not uniquely crazy,” YES [nods vigorously until head falls off]
Susan Beal
2024-04-26 23:28:34 +0000 UTCHonestly the whole thrust of the episode has me wondering that
Adam
2024-04-26 21:54:22 +0000 UTCThis line about the conspiracy between technique and human has me wondering if you’d ever do anything on Federico Campagna’s “Techne and Magic”. Lots of good stuff in there about the reduction of humanity to various measurable abstractions
Adam
2024-04-26 21:52:06 +0000 UTCExactly, and G&Y agrees – Matthew and I talked about that lots at one point, how incredible and incredibly underrated that album is. My favorite SP by far
Michael S. Judge
2024-04-26 20:12:44 +0000 UTCAnd no need to apologize for the prologue. It’s been a horrible seven months and honestly I’d be broken if it weren’t for my kids’ love and my love for them.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-26 19:24:55 +0000 UTCHi Michael, you can always email me and I’ll take you on a long guitar tone quest tangent to hopefully distract you from the horrors. I want to have discussions with you (and I guess I could talk to your brother) about recording guitar on speakers, microphones, what kinds of preamps are to be used. I’m not going to spend $40k on the 11 tube compressor that takes half an hour to warm up, but if you wanna joke about that kind of insanity, please hit me up.
NYCM&AHole
2024-04-26 19:13:53 +0000 UTCThe production on the Gold and Youth stuff reminds me so much of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Machina/The Machines of God”. This is a high compliment, to be clear. Massively underrated album.
Dwayne Reid
2024-04-26 19:11:15 +0000 UTCHear, hear!
John Waaben
2024-04-26 17:44:38 +0000 UTCHey man, sorry you’re shook. With all due acknowledgement of my only tenuous parasocial connection to you and your show, I wanted to let you know that during the lowest point in my life, your show kept me afloat. Your words in my head were a companion that helped me feel at least not uniquely crazy and kept me in touch with what I knew I loved and cared about. I’ve got no doubt that Death Corner is a net good in the world. Thank you for gazing into the abyss for us all, and rest assured nobody will begrudge you a break from the horror. Keep it up, Michael.
Heath Iverson
2024-04-26 17:13:40 +0000 UTC
